Monday, February 22, 2016

Time:
it’s no doubt a confusing topic, and it gets even more confusing the
more we try to unearth its secrets. Physicists have been examining the
workings of time for decades, and the results published about it are
mind-altering to contemplate, to say the least, and show that time might
not exist as we think it does.

A new paper titled “Time
crystals from minimum time uncertainty” that was recently revised and
re-published in The European Physical Journal marks just one example of
the astonishing research being conducted on this subject. In it, the
researchers have proposed that the shortest physically meaningful length
of time might really be multiple orders of magnitude longer than Planck
time. Planck time refers to the time required for light to travel, in a
vacuum, which would be a distance of 1 Planck length. The unit is named
after Max Planck, who was the first to propose the theory.
Nur Faisal from the University of Waterloo, one of the researchers
involved in the study, told phys.org that it might be possible for the
minimum time scale in the universe to actually be much larger than
Planck time. He also said that this can be “directly tested
experimentally.” No experiment has ever come close to
examining Planck time directly because it is so short. Nevertheless, as
phys.org points out, there is a good amount of theoretical support for
the existence of Planck time. Faisal explains: “In our paper, we have
proposed that time is discrete in nature, and we have also suggested
ways to experimentally test this proposal.” So, how do
they figure that time might be much larger than Planck time? They
measured the rate of spontaneous emission of a hydrogen atom: The
modified quantum mechanical equation predicts a slightly different rate
of spontaneous emission than that predicted by the unmodified equation,
within a range of uncertainty. The proposed effects may also be
observable in the decay rates of particles and of unstable nuclei.The
researchers also mention that their findings could change the basic
equations of quantum mechanics, and would modify the very definition of
time that’s understood today.

The Illusion of Reality

According to the rules of quantum mechanics, our observations, and as
some scientists like to call them, ‘factors associated with
consciousness,’ influence the universe at the most fundamental levels.
When physicists look at reality at the smallest scales, it becomes clear
that an atom’s behaviour is dependant on the physicist’s observations. “I
regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from
consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we
talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates
consciousness.” – Max Planck

As per this experiment,
researchers noted that our perception of time as something that is
continuously flowing is just an illusion. Faizal explains:

The
physical universe is really like a movie/motion picture, in which a
series of still images shown on a screen creates the illusion of moving
images. Thus, if this view is taken seriously, then our conscious
precipitation of physical reality based on continuous motion becomes an
illusion produced by a discrete underlying mathematical structure. This
proposal makes reality platonic in nature. However, unlike other
theories of platonic idealism, our proposal can be experimentally tested
and not just be argued for philosophically.Faizal is
referring to Plato’s idea that true reality exists independent of our
senses. Perhaps the true makeup of what we perceive to be reality is
beyond our ability to perceive? More confusing research about ‘time’ below:

The Delayed Choice/Quantum Eraser Experiment
The delayed choice experiment illustrates how what happens in the
present can change what happens(ed) in the past. It also shows how time
can go backwards, how cause and effect can be reverted, and how the
future caused the past.

To understand the delayed choice
experiment, you have to understand the quantum double slit experiment,
which is used to show how factors associated with consciousness create
different behaviours in an atom, as mentioned earlier.
In this experiment, tiny bits of matter (photons, electrons, or any
atomic-sized object) are shot towards a screen that has two slits in it.
On the other side of the screen, a high tech video camera records where
each photon lands. When scientists close one slit, the camera will show
us an expected pattern, as seen in the video below. But when both slits
are opened, an “interference pattern” emerges – they begin to act like
waves. This doesn’t mean that atomic objects are observed as a wave
(even though it recently has been observed as a wave), but rather that
each photon individually goes through both slits at the same time and
interferes with itself, but it also goes through one slit, and it goes
through the other. Furthermore, it goes through neither of them. The
single piece of matter becomes a “wave” of potentials, expressing itself
in the form of multiple possibilities, and this is why we get the
interference pattern.

How can a single piece of matter
exist and express itself in multiple states, without any physical
properties, until it is “measured” or “observed”? Furthermore, how does
it choose which path, out of multiple possibilities, it will take?

Then, when an “observer” decides to measure and look at which slit the
piece of matter goes through, the “wave” of potential paths collapses
into one single path. The particle goes from becoming, again, a “wave”
of potentials into one particle taking a single route. It’s as if the
particle knows it’s being watched. The observer has some sort of effect
on the behaviour of the particle.

Multiple experiments
have found that factors associated with consciousness “significantly”
correlated in predicted ways with perturbations in the double slit
interference pattern. (source)

You can view a visual demonstration/explanation of the double slit experiment here.

This quantum uncertainty is defined as the ability, “according to the
quantum mechanic laws that govern subatomic affairs, of a particle like
an electron to exist in a murky state of possibility — to be anywhere,
everywhere or nowhere at all — until clicked into substantiality by a
laboratory detector or an eyeball.” (New York Times)

According to physicist Andrew Truscott, lead researcher from a study
published by the Australian National University, the experiment suggests
that “reality does not exist unless we are looking at it.” It suggests
that we are living in a holographic-type of universe. (source) Now….

So,
how is all of this information relevant to the concept of time? Just as
the double slit experiment illustrates how factors associated with
consciousness collapse the quantum wave function (a piece of matter
existing in multiple potential states) into a single piece of matter
with defined physical properties (no longer a wave, all those potential
states collapsed into one), the delayed choice experiment illustrates
how what happens in the present can change what happens(ed) in the past.
It also shows how time can go backwards, how cause and effect can be
reversed, and how the future caused the past.

Like the
quantum double slit experiment, the delayed choice/quantum eraser has
been demonstrated and repeated time and time again. For example,
Physicists at The Australian National University (ANU) have conducted
John Wheeler’s delayed-choice thought experiment; their findings were
recently published in the journal Nature Physics. (source)

In 2007 (Science 315, 966, 2007), scientists in France shot photons
into an apparatus and showed that their actions could retroactively
change something which had already happened. Asher Peres, a pioneer in
quantum information theory, elaborates:

If we attempt to
attribute an objective meaning to the quantum state of a single system,
curious paradoxes appear: quantum effects mimic not only instantaneous
action-at-a-distance, but also, as seen here, influence of future
actions on past events, even after these events have been irrevocably
recorded. (source)(source)(source)This idea was first
brought to the forefront by John Wheeler in 1978, which is why I am
going to end this article with his explanation of the delayed choice
experiment. He believed that this experiment was best explained on a
cosmic scale.

Cosmic Scale Explanation

He asks us to imagine a star emitting a photon billions of years ago,
heading in the direction of planet Earth. In between, there is a galaxy.
As a result of what’s known as “gravitational lensing,” the light will
have to bend around the galaxy in order to reach Earth, so it has to
take one of two paths: go left or go right. Billions of years later, if
one decides to set up an apparatus to “catch” the photon, the resulting
pattern would be (as explained above in the double slit experiment) an
interference pattern. This demonstrates that the photon took one way,
and it took the other way.

One could also choose to
“peek” at the incoming photon, setting up a telescope on each side of
the galaxy to determine which side the photon took to reach Earth. The
very act of measuring or “watching” which way the photon comes in means
it can only come in from one side. The pattern will no longer be an
interference pattern representing multiple possibilities, but a single
clump pattern showing “one” way. What does this mean?
It means how we choose to measure “now” affects what direction the
photon took billions of years ago. Our choice in the present moment
affected what had already happened in the past….

This
makes absolutely no sense, which is a common problem when it comes to
quantum physics. Regardless of our ability make sense of it, however, it
is very real.

This experiment also suggests that
quantum entanglement (which has also been verified; read more about that
here) exists regardless of time — meaning two bits of matter can
actually be entangled, again, in time.

Time, both as we measure it and understand it, doesn’t really exist.

http://www.riseearth.com/2016/02/physicists-examine-structure-of-time.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+riseearth/KZKa+One
thing about Conspiracy Cafe we've talked about the quantum effect of
our little broadcast changing destinies. It is part of why Big Brother
has to control thought and opinion. Even a small group can be the
observer in the two slit experiment. The particles change their behavior
when observed.